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What are the differences in painting with oils and painting with acrylics?


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Paint is made of pigment and a binding medium that holds the pigment together and makes it stick to the surface you're painting on. Pigments are traditionally finely-ground minerals (e.g. ultramarine) or organic material (earth, plant extracts), but nowadays they are more likely to be synthetic (e.g. phthalo blue).

What makes paints different is the medium used. Oil paints tend to use linseed oil, or safflower, walnut or poppy oil. Acrylic paint uses a water-based polymer emulsion that is water-proof when it dries. Water colours use gum arabic, and tempera uses egg yolk.

The major difference between oils and acrylics is the drying time: Acrylics take up to half an hour, oils usually take a day to a week to be touch-dry, and a couple of months to dry completely. BUT: you can get gels for acrylics that retard the drying time, and you can use different oils or additives to make the drying time of oil paints slower or faster. A fast drying-time does not mean good paint, though!

Oils have been used for about 500 years - we know that they can last a long time. Acrylics on the other hand were only invented about 50 years ago, so nobody knows if they will last as long as oil paintings do! Yes, some oils yellow or darken with age, but probably not in your lifetime!

I have used acrylics for the past 15 years, but 3 years ago I switched to oils (suggested by a professor of fine art). It takes more preparation and practice to use oils, but the depth of colour and the different effects you can get make them so much more versatile than acrylics.